Sing, Sing a Song...

[dcseain]

Kenny Rogers' The Gambler came on the radio while i was on the way to work. Singing along with it took me back 16 years, to my many weekend visits to Cornell, where a lot of my friends went to school. Where I would stand in the stairwell of the North Campus student union and sing country and western standards while other danced. Happy times that. I don't get to sing enough nowadays.

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

I was about to say that that may have been true early on, but yodeling eventually crossed over into country as well. And then I remembered Jimmy Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Rodgers_%28country_singer%29), sometimes also known as "The Father Of Country Music", who was known for his distinctive "blue yodels". So country music included yodeling from the beginning. I think even ole Hank yodeled once in a while, although that might have been in his "Luke The Drifter" persona.

(Incidentally, I can't yodel.)

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Excellent point! I'd forgotten about Appalachie yodelling. Though Western yodel and country yodel do differ, if have overlap in TX/OK region. You won't get features like '...out in the West Texas wi-i-i-i-ind...' in country, that musical ornamation is a direct descendent of Westen Yodel. You'll find such features in Linda Ronstadt's work and in Mexican Mariachi and Folklorico works also, among others, which of course has a common root with Western. Blues/Appalacie yodel is more true yodel, but more of the Germanic tradition, or do you disagree?

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

It's unclear where the yodeling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodel) in both Appalachian and Western music came from. There were undoubtedly Germanic settlers in Appalachia... but Mexico was a German colony for a significant time ("¡Adiós, Mama Carlota!"). I suspect both American yodeling styles are ultimately Germanic in origin, but evolved along slightly different paths before converging again.